Rice Krispie Treat Pumpkins

These Rice Krispie Treat pumpkins are ADORABLE! But I need to tell you right out of the gate – if you make them, your hands are going to get messy. Very messy. Before I figured out how to roll them properly I had gooey Rice Krispie treat mixture all over everything. Just picture me standing at the counter, trying to roll a ball, except instead of it turning into a ball, it got stuck on my palms and in between all of my fingers. Grrrr! I hate when that happens!

Don’t worry though, I figured out how to get it not to stick, so I promise you, these aren’t that bad if you follow my directions. But I’ll admit, I was getting really frustrated before I figured it out!

So here’s the trick… Every time I rolled one of the little balls, I had to rub both sides of both of my hands with vegetable oil. A LOT of vegetable oil. I filled a small bowl with about 1/4 cup of vegetable oil, and I pretty much dipped my hands in it and rubbed it all over the fronts and backs of my hands like I’d rub in lotion. My hands weren’t dripping or anything, but they were definitely generously coated. And I had to coat my hands in oil after every single pumpkin. So if you plan to make these yourself, just be prepared with a small bowl of oil.

I LOVE holiday treats (haha As if you couldn’t tell by seeing how many treats I post about at this time of year!). I never would have thought of rolling Rice Krispie treats into balls, but I saw the idea over at Cincy Shopper and I knew I had to try them! So many fun possibilities!

Other than the messy hands, they’re really easy to make!

Rice Krispie Treat Pumpkins

The full printable recipe is at the end of this post, but here’s what you’ll need:

You’re pretty much making regular Rice Krispie treats, except before you add in the Rice Krispies, add food colouring to the marshmallow and butter mixture.

I think the amount of food colouring you need to use will depend on the type of food colouring you use. I started with only a couple drops of each colour, but the colour wasn’t very good. So I went a little crazy and squeezed in tons of drops. I kind of lost track of how many drops it was, (sorry about that…) but I think it was somewhere around 4 to 6 drops of red and 12 drops of yellow. You’re going to have to experiment.

I recommend starting with the yellow food colouring instead of what I did. Add the yellow, mix it all up, and then add the red, a drop at a time until you get a good orange colour.

Here’s what mine looked like after all the food colouring was mixed in:

Then add the Rice Krispies and stir it all together to combine.

It was just too messy to take pictures of me rolling the balls, but this is where you’ll want your small bowl of cooking oil to coat your hands and keep the balls from sticking to you. After you’ve rolled the balls, set them on parchment paper.

Gently press a Mini Rolo into the top of each pumpkin for the stem while the Rice Krispie treats are still warm. If it gets too hard, use a thick marker, apple corer or some other round object to make a small indent for the chocolate to sit in.

Then for the leaf, gently press a green M&M into the Rice Krispie treats (about half way in so it sticks) right next to the Rolo.

And easy peasy, you have your cute little pumpkins!

I rolled exactly 12 pumpkins from one recipe of Rice Krispie treats. They were fairly large though, so if you want to make more, you can just roll smaller balls.

¼ cup cooking oil in a small bowl (to keep it from sticking to your hands)

Instructions

In a large pot, melt the butter over low heat.

Add the marshmallows and stir until completely melted and combined with the butter.

Remove from the heat. Add several drops of yellow food colouring, mix it together, then add red food colouring one drop at a time, mixing as you go. Add red/yellow drops until you reach your desired colour. (I used about 4 drops red and 12 drops yellow). Mix well.

Add the Rice Krispies and stir to combine.

Coat both sides of your hands with a generous amount of cooking oil, and roll the Rice Krispie mixture into small balls. Set on parchment paper. Add oil to your hands after each ball.

While the balls are still warm, gently press a Mini Rolo into the top of each pumpkin for the stem and add a green M&M beside it as the leaf. (Tip: If the pumpkins cool before you're finished, use the end of a thick marker or apple corer to make a small indent in the top for the chocolate to sit in.)

Allow to cool until firm.

3.5.3208

These Rice Krispie Treat Pumpkins are so cute and they’re really easy to make once you get the hang of it. They’d be perfect for Halloween, or even Thanksgiving! You could even take it a step further and draw little jack-o-lantern faces on them with a small tube of black squeezable icing – wouldn’t they be adorable with little faces?! Such a fun little Halloween treat!

If you’re looking for more Halloween Rice Krispie treat ideas, check out our Rice Krispie Treat Monsters. These are super easy to make and they’re sooooooo much fun!!

Comments

I am thinking you could keep a little bowl of cold water instead of oil to prevent sticking. I make a similar mixture for a different recipe (Christmas “strawberries”) and the water does the trick of preventing a sticky mess.

Forget the oil…forget the water….the very best thing to use to prevent sticking is rubbing butter / margarine on your hands…..done it many times…..and the butter/margarine tastes good too since it is in the recipe already!….try it …you will see!!!… bg

I was thinking the exact same thing – or a large cookie scoop. Could do a small amount of shaping if necessary, but since pumpkins are all different, I don’t think your pumpkins need to be perfectly round.

Butter, just grease your hands up with butter inbetween maybe each 3rd ball. Doesn’t introduce any weird flavors and works just as well. Also a KEY step missing is let the mixture sit for maybe 10 min before you start trying to roll them or it will fail.

I am going to use these for a baby shower in October, and I think I will make the balls smaller so they can just be popped in to your mouth (yum)…I have had success using butter, also, but I melted it first so it went on just like the oil. Love this idea!

I would use butter instead of oil. Works for me every time. I would also use a cookie scoop. A cookie scoop is smaller than an ice cream scoop and makes round balls of dough. Just butter your scoop or dip your scoop in ice water to keep it from sticking.

These are really cute! But it is a bear if you’re trying to make them yourself as the cereal dries out very fast. I would definitely recommend making these with someone else. This could be a great toddler activity. I would also add extra food coloring so it’s really orange…I didn’t add enough. But my grandson loved them!! Thanks for the recipe!http://www.mybestparentingadvice.com

I tried the oil and it just didn’t work. Butter works so much better! I just cut off a square and would rub it between my hands every few balls. I also used orange gel coloring which made a beautiful orange color and so much easier than the liquid stuff.

Just made these and they are great! They may need more red initially since the rice krispies themselves soften the color so much that they end up rather bland in color even though the marshmellows were orange.

[…] whether it’s football, sweaters, Halloween, or these super-cool-looking Rice Krispy-treat pumpkins you’re into, we at GoDaddy wish you a very happy October. And we’ve got everything you need to […]

[…] By combining Rice Krispies with marshmallow and orange food colouring, you have the perfect round replica of a pumpkin! Finish off this food idea by decorating your pumpkin to your choice. Check out the full recipe here! […]

[…] to pinterest we made some pretty great snacks! Pumpkin rice krispies, thanks to One Little Project, a little pumpkin that got sick, and little mummies! The housewarming party was a big success, and […]

[…] to pinterest we made some pretty great snacks! Pumpkin rice krispies, thanks to One Little Project, a little pumpkin that got sick, and little mummies! The housewarming party was a big success, and […]